Pavel Durov was fired from the post of general director of VKontakte

On April 21, the founder of VKontakte *Pavel Durov was dismissed from the post of general director of the social network. According to Durov, the formal reason was that the review of his own statement of departure was not executed by the rules. Thus, today VKontakte goes under the full control of Igor Sechin and Alisher Usmanov, ”Durov wrote on his page on the social network. * A few days ago, The New Times contacted Pavel Durov by e -mail, and he also answered the questions of the magazine by e -mail. The question is where he is now and whether he feels safe, he left unanswered

Founder of VKontakte Pavel Durov / Photo: his page on vk.com

On Wednesday, you published on your VKontakte a letter addressed to you as a general director from the FSB department in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region of December 13, 2013, in which you were invited to submit data to “authors and administrators” of 39 groups regarding the Euromaidan and/or Ukraine. Why did you publish this document now, and not earlier?

This was the first request that concerned Ukrainian citizens. We received a number of others that we also ignored. Recently, the pressure on our employees in connection with these requests has increased, so I found that the time has come for a public statement.

Explain to the uninitiated: what exactly did the FSB want to get from you? And how could the FSB use the data of the authors and administrators of the groups?

This document requests the addresses of pages, IP addresses, email addresses and mobile phone numbers. According to these data, if desired, you can accurately establish the identity and physical location of the community administrator.

For a number of other Ukrainian oppositionists, we received decisions of the Russian court to receive access to their personal correspondence. We rejected them for the same reason: we believe that the decisions of Russian courts should not affect citizens of other countries.

The request from the FSB was signed by a certain “head of the operational unit S.A. Polyakov ". Who is this? What is the unit?

I don't know, I do not know this person; My employees are in contact with him.

VKontakte probably had a curator from the FSB. Are these Poles?

Our company does not have “curators from the FSB”. I fired the person whom I suspected of such connections in 2012.

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The promise of departure made it possible to postpone the issue of blocking the Navalny group. My sudden return raised the question with renewed vigor, after which I managed to win for another two weeks

“ When did you refuse to give data, what followed this? You were called to the“ Big House ”?

When we refused to issue data, psychological pressure on our employees intensified. I myself do not communicate with the special services and I would not go to the "Big House" even if there was a summons.

Have you sent more requests?

Over the past four months, we have accumulated hundreds of unfulfilled requests for blocking socio-political communities and the provision of personal data of Ukrainian users. Two documents given in my messages are taken as an example.

Claimed with your shareholders?

Oh yes.

You write that in December they were forced to give their share in business - VKontakte. Why? Whose requirement was it? How did this happen?

Property in Russia is a lever of pressure on its owner. There is no property - there is no possibility of pressure.

And how is your rejection of a share in business saved the company?

The sale of a share for a while reassured the participants in the process and allowed me, completely freed from property risks, to continue to take a sequential position as general director of VKontakte.

Some time ago, a message appeared that you had left the General Director. Then you seemed to say that it was a joke. What really happened?

The promise of departure made it possible to postpone the issue of blocking the Navalny group. My sudden return raised the question with renewed vigor, after which I managed to win for another two weeks. Further tightening the issue at the moment is almost impossible, so I considered the transfer of the problem into a public plane timely.

Now you are the general director of VKontakte or not?

At the time of the answer to this question (8:59 am 04/17/2014) I remain the general director of VKontakte.

On March 13, 2014, the prosecutor's office demanded that you close the anti -corruption group of Alexei Navalny under threat of VKontakte blocking. You refused. Can a prosecutor’s office or the FSB do it besides you?

Without the assistance of VKontakte employees or blocking the entire social network, it is technically impossible to close a separate VKontakte community from most providers.

For a long time it seemed that you were a completely apolitical person, and you yourself wrote-in response to the so-called social contract of businessmen with Navalny during the Moscow elections: "/ .../ to the bustle around Navalny, I traditionally have neutrally, just like other amusements of Internet plantations." What has changed in you or in your views that now you have publicly went against the system?

As the head of VKontakte, I remain apolitical and do not support Navalny or his opponents. In the same way, I do not support either Euromaidan or his opponents. Documents related to these topics were given for example.

On the contrary, I would become politically biased if I began to carry out political censorship at the request of one of the parties to the conflict.

I always spoke and continue to advocate personal data and free distribution of information, since I consider them a necessary foundation for the successful existence of not only Internet projects, but also a post-industrial society as a whole.

Will you stay in VKontakte? If not, what are you going to do?

I am going to continue to do what I have been doing for the past ten years - stimulating the exchange of information between people.

Sincerely,

Paul